Götterdämmerung

The murky world of subsidised opera

GETTING a seat at the annual Bayreuth Festival of Richard Wagner's operas is about as easy as shaking off a dwarf's curse: the average waiting time is nine years. But things may change. On June 15th the Bundesrechnungshof, Germany's federal audit office, recommended that the festival, which gets over €5m ($7.2m) a year of public money, should change the way it allocates tickets.

Only 40% are sold directly to the public—a mere 16% if it's a premiere. Murky quotas take care of the rest. The Society of Friends of Bayreuth gets 24% for its members. Around 30% go to such worthy causes as travel agents, who wrap them into hugely expensive tours, and corporate sponsors, for impressing (or perhaps intimidating) clients.

Sponsors must foster a long-term relationship to have a solid chance of ticket quotas, apparently. The process is far from transparent. The German Confederation of Trade Unions has one closed performance for its own big night out. Loyal trade unionists who are not Wagner fans (such people exist, believe it or not) have reportedly been able to sell their seats for a profit. There are moves to stop this practice.

Although ticket sales cover barely half the running costs—staging the end of the world is not cheap—the festival gives away 2,650 tickets a year to artists, its own staff, journalists and “special cases”. That reduces even further the tickets available to Joe Public. Opera is great art, and part of Germany's heritage. But the state has no business subsidising corporate entertainment.